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Dad’s eyes grew redder with every word I said. I could feel his anger and see his hand tightening around my mate’s neck. Black magic oozed like oil from his clawed hand onto her skin. I could almost make out the black lines as it started seeping into her veins. I stepped closer, my eyes locked on her as the light in her eyes started to fade.
“Dad! If you kill her, you’re going to kill me! Just as it has killed you on the inside when Mom died. I won’t make it through. I won’t have anything to cling to and keep me here. I will join her in death, and you will have no one.”
I hoped that would do something for him and bring him to his senses, but it did nothing to change his actions.
“You’ll be fine,” Dad said as he turned to look at my dying mate. “You’re a Chios after all.”
A pulse of magic exploded from Liberty; a scent mixed with her own nearly knocked me off my feet. Even Dad paused and loosened his grip on her neck as he smelled the scent of my pup before a snarl of hatred ripped through his lips.
“You are not worthy to carry the Chios’ heir!” he screamed, his grip growing tighter.
All I saw was red. I barely realized that I was moving before my mate fell to the ground. She let out a cough and gasped as air filled her lungs. I barely paid attention to the hand reaching for her throat as she ripped it away, blood soaking over her clothes as she heaved and wheezed.
The only thing I paid attention to was that she was breathing, and the baby’s heart was beating within her. I hovered over my father’s body as mine seemed to move of its own accord. My claws ripped into my father’s gut, tearing him apart piece by piece. It was dreamlike to see myself moving with such rage. My claws and teeth were ripping at my father’s flesh, and he barely managed to fight back.
I could see some of his wounds attempt to heal over with the tar-like black magic oozing through his blood, but my movements moved faster than it could heal him. His blood ran down my arms with the black ooze. The dark magic sizzled along my skin with no actual impact. Father fell to his knees and looked up at me, his eyes growing distant as I stood over him with no emotion.
“So,” he coughed out, “you’ve made your choice.”
I lowered my head and swallowed hard as his words hit a chord in my heart. They brought me back into my body to look down at the mess I’d made of my father. A memory triggered in my mind.
“Blood may be thick, but covenants are mightier. Through waters and choices, a path to discern.” I looked back at Liberty, her eyes wide as she watched me. I could see the black ooze of the poison that was infecting my father mixing with the blood on her neck. A glow of soft magic was pulsing through her in an attempt to cleanse her of the darker magic’s effects.
As I pulled my eyes away, I looked down at my father before bending my knee. “Yes,” I said, “I’ve made my choice. Just as you made yours.”
My hand struck out as quick as lightning, and Father’s eyes widened with surprise. Slowly, I pulled my hand back and with it, I clutched his blackened heart. The light in his eyes faded to nothing as his body fell onto the forest floor. I watched his heart shrivel and turn into dust in my hand. I felt wetness fall down my cheeks.
“Xander.” Liberty’s hand rested on my shoulder; her voice was gentler than it had been when we had fought in the room mere hours earlier. “Are you hurt?”
She didn’t ask me if I was all right. She could feel that I wasn’t. Could anyone be all right after killing their own father? I knew I had no choice. Not a real one, anyway. I placed my hand overhers and felt my shoulder shudder as a sob escaped my lips. She didn’t say a word. She didn’t mock me or belittle me for crying over the death of the man who had tried to kill her. I didn’t expect her to, either.
Instead, she sank to her knees beside me and wrapped herself around me. I let her pull me into her arms, my head pressed against her chest as I let myself cry and mourn the loss of the only family I had ever known.
“I’m sorry,” I sobbed against her chest, the sound of my pup’s heart mixed with her own.
“It’s okay,” she promised as she ran her hands through my hair. “You have every right to mourn, Xander. I’ll stay right here until you are ready to move. I’m so sorry you had to go through this.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. I was only grateful to have her help me through it. I lay there with her arms around me, just listening to the sound of her and our child. Both their scents and heartbeats helped ease my mind and proved the choice I had made was the right one.
“The Fates could have given me more of a warning,” I finally said after what felt like hours, lying in her arms. The sun was creeping over the eastern horizon now, and the sound of birds singing in the morning light filled the surrounding forest.
I looked up at Liberty and found her looking back at me with a sad smile.
“The Fates only tell us what we need to know. The rest is up to us,” she whispered.
“You sound like Brady,” I attempted to joke.
She scoffed and wiped away a tear to hide it. “Never tell him that. He won’t let me live it down if he knew that I actually listened to him.”
I reached up and wiped another tear from her cheek, touched that she had cried with me for my father, even if he had tried to kill her.
“Your secret is safe with me.” I stood up and helped her to her feet as we looked back at where my father’s body had been. All that remained now was black dust and the appearance of ashes in the air.
“She had to of been filling him with dark magic for a long time for him to go like that,” Liberty said.
I looked at her, my eyes drawn to the base of her neck. I pulled her closer, my brows furrowed as I moved her hair out of the way for a better look. Four black crescent marks marred her skin, a slight scent of dark magic hovering around the wound. Libertytried to cover the marks up with her hair, but I pulled her hand away to inspect the wounds.
“Why aren’t they healing?”
